US ban on all products from China’s Xinjiang nears as Senate passes forced labour bill
- Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act would create a ‘rebuttable presumption’ assuming goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labour
- The bill must still pass the House of Representatives before it can be sent to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who introduced the legislation with Democrat Jeff Merkley, called on the House to act quickly.
“We will not turn a blind eye to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] ongoing crimes against humanity, and we will not allow corporations a free pass to profit from those horrific abuses,” Rubio said in a statement.
Democratic and Republican aides said they expected the measure would get strong support in the House, noting the House approved a similar measure nearly unanimously last year.
“No American corporation should profit from these abuses. No American consumers should be inadvertently purchasing products from slave labour,” Merkley said.
The Biden administration has increased sanctions, and on Tuesday issued an advisory warning businesses they could be in violation of US law if operations are linked even indirectly to surveillance networks in Xinjiang.
Rights groups, researchers, former residents and some Western lawmakers and officials say Xinjiang authorities have facilitated forced labour by detaining around a million Uygurs and other primarily Muslim minorities since 2016.